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How a burmese cat got from Hamilton to Waiheke Island has her owners stumped.

And how they were reunited is like something from a storybook.

The cat was found in Esslin Rd and brought to the Waiheke SPCA after Guy Fawkes night.

SPCA manager Lesley McDougall says the cat was in great condition and staff were determined to find her owner.

It wasn't easy without a microchip but that didn't put them off. They contacted all the Esslin Rd residents and while some admitted to feeding her, none claimed ownership. Newspaper advertisements and SPCA website and Facebook notices got no response.

"Normally we only keep cats for seven days before finding a new home for them but we couldn't give up and carried on looking," Ms McDougall says.

Meanwhile Virginia Endres in Hamilton and her family were missing their 12-year-old burmese cat Squids who disappeared on Father's Day.

"She has a history of going to sleep in neighbours' cars but had never before been missing for so long," Ms Endres says.

The family put an advertisement for its lost cat on Trade Me which Waiheke Island resident Madeleine Rawlence saw. She had been trawling the internet looking for clues after seeing the burmese on the SPCA website.

"Because of the lack of response to the Waiheke adverts I knew it couldn't be a Waiheke cat and when I saw the ad on Trade Me it fitted the age and gender.

"I still couldn't believe it, though, because it's so far fetched. I can see how she might have got to Half Moon Bay but not over the water," Ms Rawlence says.

Ms Endres and her daughter Alexandria were reunited with Squids at the SPCA on Saturday afternoon after a flurry of emails.

They made the trip because they were pretty sure it was Squids.

Ms Endres says: "I really appreciate the SPCA looking after her and all the effort they made to find us."

Squids was microchipped before the 125 kilometre return trip to Hamilton - "just in case she fancies another trip away," Ms McDougall says.

The Endres family made a donation to the SPCA in Ms Rawlence's name as a thank you.